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ด๐ by Elif Shafak
My Rating: ๐๐๐๐/5
#readalong with #dalisbookclub with @_the_book_club__ and my book buddies.
#champacareadingchallenge
By @champacabooks
* Prompt 6: Shortlisted for Women's Prize
* Prompt 9: about Plants and Trees
My Review:
Ada is a teen with family and cultural roots in Cyprus; that she doesn't know much about. Her world is shattered when she loses her mum. Her dad, Kostas, is more in tune with trees though he does his best to keep up with her. Ada feels the disconnect and rift is ever growing.
The Fig Tree: in their garden is the one thing that her Dad connects with the most. It travelled with her parents when they fled the conflicted society of Cyprus. Like them, the tree is an Islander at heart.
๐ค What history has it witnessed?
๐ค What trauma has it known?
๐ค What dreams has it seen built and shattered?
It's a book of metaphors, dreams and shattered realities. It's a Human story in the perspective of a tree that's lived through a long history.
The Island of The Missing Trees is a good read for a few reasons.
*Ada is a teen from an immigrant family and is finding her place, where and how she fits. This journey is beautifully explained in small snippets of her mind, through the course of this book.
* It gives you a very broad picture of what the civil conflicts mean at ground level, without going into too much detail. It keeps your interest going.
* The ecosystem, the importance of nature is predominant in this book. It drives home a large point of how everything in nature, especially non-human plays a major role in shaping what we see today and what we can expect tomorrow.
But most importantly, there is this metaphorical meaning to the story, that resonates on multiple levels. It's like a folk song; that resonates a rhythm that's basic.. that everyone can relate to one beat or another in different levels.
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The Title was a mystery to me. I wondered throughout while reading, as to why it was named so. Here is my observation and opinion on it:
✨ It's not just a play on the Fig Tree but also a metaphorical play on the souls of the people who had to leave the Island during or after the conflict. The numerous souls who live elsewhere, but their souls still connected to their roots on the Island. They are there.. but yet missing physically.
✨ It could also indicate the hundreds of lives lost in the Civil Conflict, whose bodies were never found or traced. Their stories, their families (forest) lives on, but those 'trees' are still missing!
It makes so much poetic sense, keeping in theme with the writing and effect the book has on you, as a reader.
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